Lighting Up on NASCAR Racing Circuit

Martin Professional dealer, South Carolina-based Production Design Associates (PDA), has delivered a unique automated lighting package for five high profile promotional tents used at all NASCAR Winston Cup Series races.

Tobacco giant RJ Reynolds, sponsors of the NASCAR racing circuit, contracted mobile marketing company Spevco, Inc. to create five promotional tents for the 2002 NASCAR season. Used to promote RJ Reynolds brand of cigarettes, the tents travel around the country to every NASCAR Winston Cup event.

Range of Martin equipment for each tent

PDA has supplied a range of Martin equipment for each tent including MiniMAC Maestros, CX-4 Color Changers, Destroyers, Exterior 200 color changers and Jem TechnoHaze smoke machines.

Each tent is approximately 25 x 25 feet and has a similar set up. Two doors at the entrance lead into an illuminated inner room where a pair of MiniMAC Maestro image projecting moving heads sweep custom glass Winston gobos onto the roof and dividing wall halfway across the tent. The roof is bathed in color from a wide throw Martin Exterior 200 color changer.

Highlighting new brand of cigarettes

Two CX-4 color and pattern changers project from each of two dividing walls and into the back of the tent where two promotional girls highlight a large rotating pack of Winston’s newest brand of cigarette. The rotating pack is not only illuminated by the CX-4s but inside the pack itself PDA has placed two Martin Destroyers, which project light out of the top of the pack. A Jem TechnoHaze has been placed in each tent to provide mid-air projection surface. Control in each tent is from a Martin 2510 controller.

Jeff Nickles of PDA and Larry Borden of Spevco created the design with assistance from Martin’s Jerry Seay.

PDA Sales Manager Wendell Gillam stated, “RJ Reynolds checked out a demo earlier in the year and liked what they saw. The set up was first used at the Daytona 500 in February and everything has worked well.”